Users are becoming disenchanted with performing financial transactions online. One of the main reasons for this disenchantment is due to the increasing number of online frauds being perpetrated. The online frauds may be sensitive data thefts or other identity thefts. Add to this that malicious attackers have the advantage of anonymity and a large number of users to attack and users have a good reason to being alarmed.
One specific type of online fraud is known as phishing where attackers fool or trick users into revealing their authentication or sensitive data. Phishing attacks may involve spoofed web pages or other forms of trickery to obtain users sensitive data.
Another type of online fraud is known as pharming where the infrastructure is manipulated possibly without the users knowledge to perform malicious acts upon the user.
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) are cryptographic protocols which provide secure communications over networks such as the Internet. Various online frauds have been able to succeed despite SSL/TLS being used.